The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and a method for identifying and tracking disposable objects and surgical instruments in surgical operating rooms. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method to identify and count surgical objects such as needles, scalpels, blades have long been used in the medical profession to help and assist doctors and nurses with their medical needs. In some instances, these types of surgical objects have been left unaccounted for and to the detriment of those within an operating theatre, have caused serious injury. Some current methods of manually counting and tracking these potentially dangerous items include utilizing the nurses within the hospitals.
Moreover, other objects such as sponges may be heavily used during surgery and some of these can easily be left behind unaccounted for. Some conventional techniques for tracking sponges have used radio frequency identification (RFID).
A wide array of surgical instruments may be employed during a surgery and these can be left behind in the patient, creating a serious health hazard. One other known technique uses a bar code system on instruments but this may impose tedium as the barcode can sometimes only be read by the detection system if the labeled object is held at a certain angle, and effective detection of the barcode may require more than one pass.
Hence, it can be seen that a need exists for a system and method of for automated tracking of surgical objects used in a surgical theatre.